


The Painting of the Voice

by Esta Camille Lupin (edye327)



Series: I'll Be Loving You [11]
Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Once Upon a Time (TV), Parks and Recreation, Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, newtina fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-29
Updated: 2017-02-01
Packaged: 2018-09-20 13:54:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9494390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edye327/pseuds/Esta%20Camille%20Lupin
Summary: Writing is the painting of the voice.--VoltaireFor miscellaneous prompts, freeform or based on the system described in the first chapter.Warnings and ratings will be updated accordingly. All Fantastic Beasts prompts will be based on my TWMLLO canon (part one of this series).





	1. Introduction

I saw 221b_ee, one of my lovely readers, do this, and I couldn't help copying it, with a little alteration. 

Here's how it works:

Comment with a letter, number 1-100, and number 1-30.

I will grab a random book with the given letter in its title, turn to page 1-100, and go to the 1-30th line. 

Then, I'll write a oneshot (I swear! I already have my hands full with TWMLLO) based on that line, either directly incorporated or inspired by it. 

Alternately, you can leave any prompt (T rated at most) you'd like to see filled in the comments. 

The ships I'll write about:

  * Newtina (of course)
  * Sopheus (based on OC from TWMLLO, I'm trash and I love my babies)
  * Johnlock
  * Harry/Ginny
  * Captain Swan
  * Beslie (Parks and Rec)
  * Jam (The Office)



Fandoms I'm part of:

  * Fantastic Beasts
  * Harry Potter
  * BBC Sherlock
  * Once Upon a Time
  * Parks and Rec
  * The Office
  * Various other movies and books probably



If you want a ship or fandom not listed, I can see what I can do. If I can't write your requested ship, I'll use the prompt with another one.

Alright, I'll just leave this here then! One of my blog followers requested some Hermione/Krum so I'll probably post that here when it's done :) 

Go crazy!


	2. Table of Contents

Here I'll post a table of contents listing the ship for each chapter!

Chapter 3: Meet Poseidon — Newtina


	3. Meet Poseidon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sophia has a present for Tina — a new cat, in fact. Who turns out to have some jealousy issues when Newt comes home. In the end, even a demonic cat can’t come between Newtina. Pure fluff and feels in this one.
> 
> Set in the same universe as [_Then Will My Love Linger On_](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9240317/chapters/20955185), approximately two years later. If you haven’t read it, it would be a nice supplement (and context), as you can read about the memories referred to — and about Sophia — in that fic! I've linked references to their corresponding chapters.
> 
> “Meet Poseidon!” Sophia said grandly. Poseidon was a scruffy cat with dark gray fur, slightly panicked eyes (who could blame him, really?), and… three legs.
> 
> Tina put the cup of coffee down. Mercy Lewis, it’s only nine o’clock.
> 
> “He’s your new cat!” Sophia explained.
> 
> “Okay, I’m sorry but I just have to ask,” Tina said, closing her eyes in mental pain for a moment. “How many legs did that cat have when you found him?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you VERY much for the kind comments on TWMLLO. I'm still going to take a break from that fic for a bit, and I'm going to wait until I can sit down and properly reply to each one.
> 
> In the meantime, I'll work a bit on oneshots like these. Enjoy!

_Me Talk Pretty One Day_ by David Sedaris

Page 72, line 6:

[...we kept a succession of drowsy, secretive cats that seemed to enjoy a] _unique bond with our mother. “It’s because I open their_ [cans,” she’d say, though we all knew it ran deeper than that.]

Thanks @221b_ee :)

* * *

Tina was en route to the kitchen for her mandatory morning cup of coffee when the apartment door slammed open. Unsurprisingly, it was Sophia. More surprising was the fact that Sophia was carrying a writhing burlap sack.

“Morning, Teen,” the 22-year-old said cheerfully, making a beeline for the coffee pot while dangling the sack from one hand.

“Wait,” Tina said as she steered Sophia firmly away from the caffeine. Then she stood akimbo, taking full advantage of the height difference. “What _is_ that thing?”

“So I was just gonna ask you a favor,” Sophia began sweetly.

“Please, _please_ tell me whatever you’ve got in there is legal.”

Sophia looked at her scornfully. “Of course. When have I ever had issues with the _law?”_

[“Maybe when you ended up at MACUSA for a serious breach of the —”](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9240317/chapters/21021032)

Sophia scoffed. “That was Newt’s fault for being an idiot, and it was only a few No-Majs. Point is, this is totally legal, and it’s just the _smallest_ favor.”

Tina sighed. “Just… give me a minute.” She poured herself a mug of coffee, then slowly leaned up against the edge of the counter, hands wrapped around the ceramic. “Okay,” she said once she’d taken several desperate gulps.

“Swell!” Sophia said chirpily. Without any warning, she turned the burlap sack upside down and suddenly a mass of fur flew out and landed on the floor, making a series of displeased, concerning noises in the process.

“What is —”

“Meet Poseidon!” Sophia said grandly. Poseidon was a scruffy cat with dark gray fur, slightly panicked eyes (who could blame him, really?), and… three legs.

Tina put the cup of coffee down. _Mercy Lewis, it’s only nine o’clock._

“He’s your new cat!” Sophia explained.

“Okay, I’m sorry but I just have to ask,” Tina said, closing her eyes in mental pain for a moment. “How many legs did that cat have when you found him?”

“Are you _implying_ that I would’ve done something to him?” Sophia asked in outrage.

“It was a reasonable question,” Tina replied. It really was. If you knew Sophia Ollerton as well as she did, it was _entirely_ reasonable.

“He had three legs to start with,” Sophia insisted, grabbing him by the tail as he tried to make a run for it. Poseidon appeared incredibly unimpressed, even for a cat.

“What am I supposed to do with it?” Tina asked in mild dismay. Then again, if one was dismayed every time Sophia did something completely unnecessary, possibly inappropriate, and likely reckless, they would be in a constant state of dismay. (Newt didn’t help matters. Really, he continued to take his brotherly role to new heights.)

 _“Him,”_ Sophia corrected her.

“Fine. What am I supposed to do with him?”

“Keep him!” Sophia manhandled Poseidon as he squirmed and mewled in her arms. “Hey, stop that!”

“How is it possible that you’re such a good magizoologist but you’re torturing that poor cat?” Tina said.

Sophia shrugged. “I dunno, I guess that means you _have_ to take him.” She shot Tina a sly, conniving smile.

That young woman would be the death of her. Two _very_ eventful years should have been enough time to mature, but apparently not. To be fair, Newt was ten years Sophia’s senior and he still acted like a child half the time.

Tina really questioned her life decisions sometimes, specifically in terms of the people she’d chosen to love. (But then Newt usually kissed her, or said something unintentionally romantic, and she stopped questioning for quite some time.) At any rate, the bedraggled, disgruntled cat was having a terrible time of it and far be it from Tina — the fiancée of a world-renowned magizoologist — to ignore a creature’s suffering.

Incredibly begrudgingly, she took Poseidon into her arms. He curled up to her chest (he was incredibly light and far too thin, she realized) and began to purr. “Hey, Poseidon,” she murmured. His ears twitched. Then he laid one small front paw over her forearm and fell asleep.

Dammit.

“He’s really cute,” Tina admitted.

“So you’ll keep him then!”

“I…” Tina said weakly, looking down at the undeniably adorable bundle of fur in her arms. She heaved a long-suffering sigh of resignation. “Fine.”

Sophia beamed.

* * *

Newt hated being away from Tina. However, duty called, and with the new initiative he’d begun, which educated young witches and wizards worldwide about magical beasts, travel was a necessity. Not to mention the fact that he’d become something of a consultant-veterinarian-zoologist hybrid; just the other day he was called to resolve a dragon emergency in Ukraine.

At any rate, he was as excited as always to finally, _finally_ touch down outside the small brownstone apartment. It had been three whole weeks of limited contact (they were both busy with their respective jobs, and owls had difficulty reaching some of the nooks and crannies where Newt resided) and all he really wanted to do now was hug Tina, and kiss her, and probably a variety of other activities, and then bake biscuits — [this had become something of a tradition, ever since that first night of baking and giddy 3 am conversation](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9240317/chapters/20986904) — and talk. And then he wanted to fall asleep with her in his bed again, because one of the most awful things about traveling was waking up alone.

Instead, he was mauled.

The second he pushed open the door, he got to enjoy the image of Tina sitting at the kitchen table for about half a second before a giant ball of fur launched itself at him. This ball of fur had claws — quite sharp claws, actually — and was meowing furiously. Had it been able to speak, he suspected later that it would have given him a long speech about not coming near Tina ever again.

“Poseidon!” Tina cried, running over and prying the cat off of Newt. Poseidon went, but still twined himself around Tina’s ankles, glaring at the strange man in the apartment. “I’m so sorry —” she began, before Newt kissed her, and everything was right again.

Until Poseidon decided he’d had _quite_ enough, and with a massive yowl leapt into the air and affixed himself to the top of Newt’s head.

“POSEIDON!” Tina yelled. Newt was shouting in pain as the cat scrambled down the side of his arm so as to avoid capture, claws digging into his skin. Finally, Tina had the presence of mind to pull out her wand, and sent the feline flying across the apartment to land with an indignant thump. “I am _so_ sorry — oh no!” she despaired, realizing that Newt was now covered in scratches and leaking blood. He had one particularly bad one over his eyelid, his scalp was stinging like mad, and despite long sleeves his arms were bleeding as well.

“What the bloody hell _is_ that thing?” he gasped, clutching at the side of his face, which was also thoroughly scratched up.

“It’s Poseidon,” Tina explained helplessly. “He’s a cat.”

“I can see _that,”_ Newt replied. “Where did he come from?”

“Um… Sophia might have come by when you were away.” Tina grimaced. “You can take it up with her.”

The throbbing was gradually subsiding. His eyelid, however, was now beginning to swell slightly. “I will kill her,” he vowed. “Or worse — I’ll write Mum, and she can send Sophie a Howler at work.”

“We can talk about methods of retribution later,” Tina said dryly, and led him into the kitchen. “Let’s try to stop the bleeding first.”

* * *

Tina was able to fix him up in a jiffy, but Newt had to say that being viciously attacked by what seemed to be a miniature hippogriff rather killed the mood, almost more so than [when he was attacked by an actual hippogriff](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9240317/chapters/21314054). Besides, the debacle with Fairclaw resulted in Tina removing his shirt, so all things considered it wasn’t that bad, [other than the blood loss and massive fight and nearly getting killed](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9240317/chapters/21333650).

They talked amicably on the couch as he told her about his adventures and she filled him in on MACUSA’s inner workings. Shockingly — everyone had been calling them an old married couple from the start, and if their bedtime was any indication they were well on their way to actually fulfilling that label — both were ready for bed by ten o’clock.

During this time, Poseidon had been lurking around eyeing Newt with immense dislike. Newt tried to ignore it, and Tina kept admonishing the cat, but he was tremendously relieved to be safely behind the closed doors of their bedroom. For many reasons. One of which was the fact that they _were_ in their bedroom, behind closed doors, and he loved Tina quite a lot and had never had any qualms about conveying that particular sentiment through particular activities.

However, the moment they touched their sheets, Tina let out a muffled scream as that _blasted_ cat came hurtling through a vent in the ceiling and landed squarely on Newt’s face. Newt fought him off valiantly, and Tina grabbed her wand, but by the time they had convinced Poseidon to cease and desist, Newt was bleeding properly. Again.

“Newt, I’m so sorry,” Tina apologized for the umpteenth time. He was sitting on the edge of the bed as she stood before him and worked her healing magic. Fortunately, cat scratches required no further treatment, but if Poseidon didn’t lay off and continued attacking the same areas, Newt was going to need some legitimate first aid.

“It’s quite alright,” he said, wincing. “That cat is out of hand.”

“I know, I don’t know how he got in here!”

“Don’t worry,” Newt said as she finished, and got to his feet. He marched over to the corner, where Poseidon was skulking, and seized him none to gently around the middle. Then he threw the cat into the apartment, slamming the door shut.

“He could get in again —”

“Ah.” Newt smiled at her and reached for his own wand. “I _am_ a wizard, you know.”

She looked on fondly as he performed a number of protection spells until the room was virtually impenetrable. Once that was done, they heaved sighs of relief, and Newt slid back into bed beside her.

“Now, where were we?”

“I think we were about here,” she said, pressing herself against him as his arms wound around and he leaned in, heart beating in time with hers. The moment his lips met hers, however, Poseidon materialized seemingly out of nowhere, and aimed for Newt yet again.

“Galloping gargoyles!” Newt yelled. A sharp claw ripped through his lip, slightly reminiscent of [the time Sophia caused him to hit Tina in the mouth with a fork](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9240317/chapters/21116858) (he still believed it was 100% her fault) except much worse.

Tina jumped up. “That’s enough!” she shouted, and grabbed Poseidon roughly by the nape of his neck. Then she held him aloft and stared straight into his eyes, which were still darting towards Newt in palpable distrust. “Newt is my fiancé,” she said firmly (god, it was always so _amazing_ to hear her say that), “and you are a cat. If you don’t leave us alone, I’ll send you back to Sophia.”

Poseidon looked at her woefully and meowed.

“I’m serious!”

He narrowed his eyes at Newt again.

Tina turned on Newt suddenly. “How did he get through?” she asked, in the exact same way she’d asked who he was when they first met.

“Er…” he said, having just sorted that out. “I suppose it’s something to do with him being non-magical. The spells can keep out Muggles, but I suspect it’s different with animals. He was able to get past the barrier.”

Tina let out a noise of extreme frustration. “Fine,” she snapped, and got out of bed. “Leave us alone,” she ordered the cat, and tossed him forcefully onto the living room carpet.

“I’m afraid that might not be quite effective,” Newt said as she joined him again.

“I’m serious. I’ll send him back to Sophia,” she said fiercely. “Oh no, your lip…”

He managed to stop the bleeding, then wiped the excess blood on the back of his hand, wincing. If Poseidon’s initial attack had killed the mood, _this_ had viciously and vengefully murdered it.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized again, brows knitting in concern.

“It’s alright,” he reassured her, although it hurt a bit to talk now.

“No it’s not,” she said wisely.

“Well, no, it isn’t,” he admitted, “but it will be.”

“Come on.” She drew the covers over them and turned on her side to face him. “I’m sorry again anyway,” she said, this time gently cradling his face in her hands.

It never ceased to amaze Newt, the way she treated him as though he was something precious and valuable and not worth losing. He’d improved by absolute leaps and bounds since their relationship commenced, of course, and no longer experienced crippling doubt and overwhelm in the face of love, but he couldn’t help being wonderstruck and suspected he would never quite get used to it.

“Hey,” she said softly; he realized he was once again caught up in his own thoughts. That was one thing that hadn’t changed: Sophia had declared him a lost cause awhile ago, as had the rest of the world, and so Tina had to learn to live with it.

“Sorry,” he said, tightening his arms around her.

“What were you thinking about?” she asked, head on his heart.

He smiled and drew her closer still. “You.”

She pulled away enough to look at his face. “Really?”

“What else could I possibly be thinking about?”

“I don’t know. You probably have lots of things on your mind.”

“No, just you,” he said confidently. He remembered suddenly that Saturday in 1927, when he and Tina spent the day working together.

_[ “You get a little crease between your eyebrows, you know, when you’re concentrating,” he says conversationally, tapping Tina on the forehead gently with his finger. “Right there.” ](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9240317/chapters/20986904) _

_She jolts, and he realizes she was probably quite engrossed in her work, making the interruption unwelcome and startling. “Mercy, Newt.” Then she frowns at him. “Are you calling me old?”_

_“What?” he says in alarm. “No, I —”_

_“Newt.” She sits up and lays a hand on his arm. “It’s fine.”_

_“Oh.”_

_A moment passes, and then something makes her smile. Pushing her hair out of her face, she asks in an odd tone of voice, “Do you do that to everyone?”_

_“Do what?”_

_“Watch them like that. Make observations. It’s not bad, it’s just… unusual.”_

_“No,” Newt says, suddenly feeling rather shy, “no, it’s just you.”_

_She settles back down, a strange look on her face. “Oh.”_

“It’s always you,” he said after a moment of thought.

_I’ve changed. I think. Maybe a little._

Then, because they’d spent far too long warding off a possessive feline and it _had_ been a full 21 days since he got to see her last, Newt wasted positively no time in kissing her.

He and Tina had kissed a million times since their first. Some were chaste, some tender, some mirthful, some passionate, some spontaneous, some overeager, and some were his clever way of interrupting her in the middle of an argument. But something about tonight made it feel so much more like their first kiss.

_[ “Newt, I owe you my life,” she states gravely.](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9240317/chapters/21004574) _

_He shrugs uncomfortably. “It was no trouble, really.”_

_She's still gazing at him. “No, it was.”_

_He thinks for a minute before admitting, “Alright, perhaps it was a little gallant.”_

_The silence is stretching out between them. Newt isn’t sure if he should be the first to break it — perhaps she’s waiting for him to say something. “Do you think —” he begins, intending to ask about dinner, but he’s interrupted by Tina raising a hand and ever so gently pushing his hair back. She looks at him searchingly, scans his whole face; he has no idea what he looks like, but probably quite panicked and out of his depth (because he is)._

_“Yes?” she whispers, and both her hands are cradling his face now. As soon as her eyes dart down to his mouth, he finally, finally clues into what’s very likely about to happen. A fraction of a second later, she leans in and presses her lips to his._

_Several things happen all at once, and he's momentarily dazed. He can't recall the last time he did this with someone, but he knows with absolute certainty that he's been waiting for this kiss his entire life._

“I love you,” he said honestly.

She kissed him on the cheek, then the temple. “I love you too,” she whispered.

“I did almost say it, you know, that time at the guesthouse,” he admitted, realizing that in all their time together they’d never discussed that.

_[ “Are you really alright?” he asks, one hand resting on her shoulder, the other stroking up and down the curve of her cheek. ](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9240317/chapters/21302408) _

_“Yes,” she says._

_“Are you quite positive?”_

_“Yes.”_

_“Then why are you crying?”_

_“I’m not.” She sniffles, then forces a smile onto her face. “See?”_

_He draws her into his arms suddenly, fiercely. “I…” he says, his breath ghosting across her neck._

“Really?” she asked, then grinned, that unexpected dimple appearing on her cheek. He kissed it.

Newt nodded. “I told Theseus. He was disapproving of the fact that I’d stopped myself.”

“But you loved me?”

“Don’t be an idiot,” he told her sternly.

“I loved you, you know.”

“Did you, now?”

She was centimeters from his face now, and he would never stop finding her eyes fascinating and beautiful and so incredibly _Tina_ as she looked at him. “I did,” she breathed, and closed the gap.

It hurt, because of Poseidon’s vicious attack, but kissing Tina was always worth it, and so with very little effort he successfully pushed past the pain. Just as he moved to deepen the kiss, to try to pull her impossibly closer, there was a series of angry meows, followed by deliberate, repetitive scratching on the door. That goddamn cat. He looked at Tina bleakly.

“Ignore it,” she said.

And they did.


End file.
